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Rehoboth Marathon is for the half crazy and full-boat insane

Female winner Holly Wilson Smith runs 3:01, misses her goal by a minute
December 6, 2017

Looking over the burgeoning bubble of long-distance racing since the running boom of the 1970s swept the planet, the longitudinal data suggests that twice as many people are half crazy as full-boat insane.

A Rehoboth fire truck sounded the airhorn at 7 a.m., Dec. 2, as 2,635 runners of the 3,000 registered trekked west then turned north for the 10th running of the Rehoboth Marathon, which also included a 13.1-mile half-marathon race.   

A total of 977 athletes elected the marathon distance, while another 1,658 chose the half marathon. Along with a common starting line over rubber speed bumps that record a computer chip in the bib, there is a common finish chute that immediately and instantaneously records the chip time on the computer. There is also an app for GPS tracking of runners by bib number, projecting a likely finish time.

“The technology is great and the support out on the course is fantastic, but you still have to go out and run the distance,” said Race Director Tim Bamforth.

Jon Chesto was the overall winner in the marathon in 2:44:35, while Jeff Young fininshed a strong second in 2:56:17.

Local Holly Wilson Smith won the women’s race. She had a goal to break three hours, but ran 3:01:02. “Maybe next time,” she said. 

Martin Rodriguez ran a personal best 2:58 to qualify for the Boston Marathon for the second straight year.    

The leaderboard for the marathon on the men’s side was Jon Chesto in 2:44, Jeff Young in 2:46, Curt Forst in 2:47, Stephen Tucker in 2:47 and Daniel Ray in 2:48.

Following Smith on the women’s leaderboard were Andrea Duke in 3:05, Jen Shultz in 3:05, Mary Beth Stricker in 3:06 and Dana Kolesar in 3:12.

A total of 27 runners broke three hours, while 702 broke the four-hour barrier.

The half marathon was won by Jake Austin in 1:13 followed by Mike Digennaro in 1:14, Kyle Brightbill in 1:15, Chad Lloyd in 1:18 and Joey Andrisani in 1:19.

Leah-Kate Lounsbury was the top woman in the half in 1:26:01. She was followed by Brenda Hodge in 1:26:11, Lauren Cancelliere in 1:27:35, Cindy Conant in 1:27:56 and Jessica Hall in 1:29:01.

Go to www.novatimingsystems.com for expanded race results.

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